Will the government’s massive Māngere housing project repeat past mistakes?

PHOTO: Ten thousand new houses will be built in Māngere over the next 10-15 years as part of the government’s plans to tackle the housing crisis. Photo: Supplied / Kāinga Ora

Plans to build 10,000 new houses in Māngere may help solve Auckland’s housing shortage, but many fear it will gentrify the suburb in the process.

Sir Douglas Bader was a disabled British air force pilot credited with bringing down a number of German fighter planes in the second world war. Among the many accolades his heroics garnered him, town planners of a massive state housing development project in Māngere decided to name one of its main arterial roads after him – Bader Drive.

The development, which began in the 1960s, would soon become home to the majority of Auckland’s Pacific population. And thanks to the sterling work of the Polynesian Panthers, the stories of how families were moved and in many cases pushed out of suburbs like Ponsonby and Grey Lynn into Māngere and Ōtara is now well-known.

Fast forward to today, and the government is undertaking an equally ambitious plan to replace the suburb’s existing 2700 state houses with 10,000 new homes which will be a mix of state and open market properties.

The first stage of this development is well under way and Bader Drive is currently the focus of this work. In 2020, four large multi-level apartment buildings made up predominantly of two-bedroom homes were opened to replace a collection of ramshackle dwellings that were well past their shelf life.

For someone who has lived on Bader Drive, and would often push my young daughters to sleep on long walks up and down this road, it was clear these ageing state houses were well overdue for a revamp. On rainy days the inadequate underground drainage meant the footpaths were a slippery mess and the moss and mould on these flimsy weatherboard bungalows was starkly clear.

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But despite the promise this splurge of new housing offers, many harbour fears we may see history repeated as Pacific families are pushed further south to make way for higher-earning newcomers.

Monte Cecilia Housing Trust is the main community housing provider in the area. Its chief executive Bernie Smith shares these concerns.

“First home owners [from Māngere] can’t afford $800,000 to $900,000 houses,” he says. “Basically we’re going to see a lot of gentrification, as it will only be those that can afford to [who will get a house].”

Smith says if Māngere is to retain its identity as a capital of Pacific culture within Auckland, then affordable homes with at least three bedrooms need to be a key part of the development.

“We know communities like Māngere are very tightly knitted together by culture, and have been there for generations, but I suspect that cultural fabric is going to be broken.

“Sadly, and particularly for Pacific families who live generationally, their families have been broken up as state houses have been demolished and the state isn’t building big enough homes for them.”

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New Zealand’s only Pacific-led community housing provider Penina Trust has already built a number of multigenerational homes in other parts of South Auckland and is hoping the government can help fast-track further funding to meet the Pacific community’s housing needs.

“We’re going to live to regret building all these one- and two-bedroom houses,” Penina’s chief executive Roine Lealaiauloto says.

“I know as a Pacific provider we see a lot of bigger families, with a need for more space, and they also want to remain together purely because of the economic side of things.”

Vicki Sykes and Vicky Hau are members of the Māngere Housing Community Reference group, which is advocating on behalf of locals with Kāinga Ora.

“I was born and bred here and lived and worked here my whole life,” Hau says.

“One of the things that got me is seeing how dense the housing is and it concerns me how this will affect our families. I know we need more affordable homes but they also need to be suitable for families.”